Methods and apparatus to detect a blank frame in a digital video broadcast signal

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus to detect blank images in a digital video broadcast signal are disclosed. An example method of detecting a blank image includes receiving a compressed digital image including a plurality of DC values, analyzing a total number of bits in the digital image to determine if the digital image has a data size small enough to be a blank frame candidate, if the data size is small enough for the digital image to be a blank frame candidate, analyzing multiple areas of the digital image to determine if the multiple areas exhibit substantially a same complexity, if the multiple areas exhibit substantially the same complexity, determining a number of DC values in the plurality of DC values that meet a criterion, comparing the determined number of DC values meeting the criterion to a threshold, and identifying the received digital image as a blank image if the determined number of DC values exceeds the threshold.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure pertains to commercial/advertisement measurementand/or verification systems and, more particularly, to methods andapparatus to detect a blank frame in a digital video broadcast signal.

BACKGROUND

As used herein, “broadcast” refers to any sort of electronictransmission of signals from a source to multiple receiving devices.Thus, a “broadcast” may be a cable broadcast, a satellite broadcast, aterrestrial broadcast, a traditional free television broadcast, a radiobroadcast, and/or an internet broadcast, and a “broadcaster” may be anyentity that transmits signals for reception by a plurality of receivingdevices. The signals may include content, (also referred to herein as“programs”), and/or commercials (also referred to herein as“advertisements”). An “advertiser” is any entity that provides anadvertisement for inclusion in a broadcast signal.

As is well known, advertisers pay significant sums of money tobroadcasters to have their commercials/advertisements broadcast inassociation with particular programs at particular times (i.e., during acertain “time slot”). Typically, broadcasters honor their contractualobligations to the advertisers and transmit commercials during theagreed upon time slots. However, mistakes and/or last minute programmingchanges occasionally cause a commercial to be broadcast during a timeslot different from the agreed upon time slot, or to not be broadcast atall.

Additionally, businesses such as businesses selling consumer productsare very interested in the advertising and selling strategies of theircompetitors. To this end, these businesses are interested in obtainingcompetitor expenditure studies which identify data such as the times ofbroadcast of their competitor's commercials, the channels/programs beingsponsored by their competitor, etc. This information reflects how thecompetitor is spending its advertising dollars and may be used todevelop a competing advertising strategy and/or to decipher informationabout the competitor's strategic plans.

In order to monitor the broadcasting of commercials, monitoring stationsmay be installed at various locations in various broadcasting areas.These monitoring stations collect information indicative of thecommercials broadcast in their associated broadcasting areas, thetimes/dates at which those commercials were broadcast, and the stationsor channels that broadcast those commercials. The collected informationmay be in an analog and/or a digital format. The information collectedfor each commercial identified by the monitoring stations may be some orall of the commercial as broadcast, a signature for some or all of thecommercial as broadcast (e.g., a proxy uniquely representative of thecontent of the commercial), and/or a code associated with, and possiblybroadcast with, the commercial. The collected information typicallyuniquely identifies the commercial with which it is associated. It mayalso identify the station broadcasting the commercial and/or the channelon which the commercial was broadcast and the time/date on which thecommercial was broadcast.

Each monitoring station is typically provided with a database storingthe codes and/or signatures that are used to identify known commercials.In particular, when a commercial is found in the broadcast, themonitoring station automatically compares the code and/or signaturerepresentative of the broadcast to the codes and/or signatures stored inthe database to automatically identify the commercial. If a matchingcode and/or signature is found in the database, the commercial isidentified from the database. The identity of the commercial is thenstored in a memory. The identity of the commercial is typically storedin association with a time and/or a date stamp identifying the time/dateat which the commercial was broadcast and an identification of thechannel on which the commercial was broadcast.

In the event an automatic identification of the commercial is notachieved (e.g., the commercial is not yet identified in the databasebecause, for example, it is a new commercial), the monitoring stationstores the collected information representative of the commercial (e.g.,a code and/or a signature) in memory for later identification by a humanbeing. To make it possible for a human being to identify the commercial,the monitoring station also stores and forwards a copy of at least aportion of the commercial or a replica thereof to enable a human to viewand/or hear the commercial. A human being will subsequently view thecommercial or the replica of the commercial to determine if it is acommercial, and, if so, if it is a new commercial or a known commercial.If it is a new commercial, the human being will provide a (preferablyunique) name for the commercial and add it to the appropriatedatabase(s) in association with a code and/or signature uniquelyrepresentative of that commercial to enable automatic identification inthe future.

Periodically, the monitoring stations transmit the collected informationto one or more central data processing facilities. The central dataprocessing facility(ies) then process the information received from themonitoring stations to identify commercials that were not identifiableto the monitoring station(s) (e.g., via human intervention) as explainedabove, and to compile reports identifying the commercial that wereactually broadcast, the stations and/or channels on which thecommercials were broadcast, and the times/dates at which thosebroadcasts occurred. The report(s) may then be sold to one or moreinterested parties.

As mentioned above, whenever a broadcast segment cannot be automaticallyidentified as a specific commercial by, for example, comparing asignature of the segment to a database storing signatures of knowncommercials, it is necessary to have a human being review the broadcastsegment to determine if the segment is a new commercial to be added tothe database for subsequent automatic identification efforts, if thesegment is an already known commercial, or if the segment is not acommercial (e.g., the segment is content). Such human verificationefforts are more expensive than automatic identification efforts becausethe human being must be compensated for their efforts. Therefore, it isdesirable to reduce the number of instances requiring humanverification. Because new commercials not yet present in the databaserequire human viewing to properly add the commercial to the database,the focus on reducing human verification efforts lies upondistinguishing commercials from content.

More specifically, since commercial monitoring systems are focused oncommercial broadcast identification and/or verification as opposed tocontent identification and/or verification, methods of distinguishingthe portions of a broadcast signal that correspond to commercials fromportions of the broadcast signal that correspond to content have beenproposed. These methods are utilized at the monitoring stations toensure that the portions of the broadcast signal corresponding tocontent are discarded while the portions of the broadcast signalcorresponding to the commercials are processed as explained above.

Some proposed methods of distinguishing commercials from content relyupon triggers embedded in the broadcast signal. For instance,commercials in video broadcast signals are typically separated fromcontent by one or more blank video frames. Therefore, some known systemsattempt to identify blank video frames as a trigger for when to begincollecting and storing the data received at the monitoring station.Because commercials or blocks of commercials are typically interspersedwithin a broadcast signal in relative short blocks of times (e.g., fiveminutes or less), the known systems identify commercials and/or blocksof commercials by identifying blank frames (or pairs of blank frames, orgroups of blank frames) separated by less than a predetermined length oftime (e.g., five minutes). When such a pair of blank video frames (orgroup of blank video frames) is detected, the known systems beginprocessing the information collected around the blank frames to identifythe commercials, their time/date of broadcast, and/or thestation/channel carrying the commercials.

Some known systems attempt to determine when a broadcast image is blankby decompressing digital video streams, and comparing the decompressedvideo frames to a predetermined color. However, this method has severaldrawbacks. Decompressing digital content can be time consuming and/ormay require special hardware. Further, broadcasters sometimessimultaneously broadcast two content and/or commercial streams with oneof the content and/or commercial streams being located in a relativelylarge primary viewing window and the other of the content and/orcommercial streams being located in a relatively small secondary viewingwindow (e.g., a picture-in-picture window) embedded in or overlying theprimary viewing window. Known systems may miss the occurrence of a blankPIP/secondary viewing window due to activity in the main/primary viewingwindow and/or vice versa.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example advertisementmonitoring system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example monitoring station ofthe system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the MPEG encoding scheme.

FIG. 4 is an example luminance block of a macro block shown in thefrequency domain.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example blank image detector.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example blank frame candidateidentifier.

FIG. 7 is an example slice table.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example blank frame tester.

FIG. 8A is a block diagram illustrating another example blank frametester.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an example order in which the blank imagedetector reviews the luminance blocks of a series of macro blocks.

FIGS. 10A-10C are a flowchart representative of machine readableinstructions which may be executed to implement the example blank imagedetectors of FIGS. 8 and/or 8A.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a blank secondary viewing window (i.e., apicture-in-picture window) embedded in an active primary viewing window.

FIG. 12 is similar to FIG. 11, but illustrates a blank primary viewingwindow and an active secondary viewing window.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating another example blank imagedetector.

FIG. 13A is a block diagram illustrating an example blank framecandidate identifier for use in the PIP context.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example blank slice detector.

FIG. 14A is a block diagram illustrating another example blank slicedetector for use in the PIP context.

FIG. 15 is a portion of an example slice map mapping blank slices of anI-frame.

FIGS. 16A-16F are a flowchart representative of machine readableinstructions which may be executed to implement the example blank imagedetector of FIGS. 13 and 14 and/or the example blank image detector ofFIGS. 13 and 14A.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating xy-coordinate pairs associatedwith a rectangular region.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of an example computer which may beprogrammed to implement the apparatus of FIGS. 5, 9 and/or 13.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/530,081 filed Dec. 16, 2003,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/534,790 filed Sep. 25, 2006, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/117,840 filed May 27, 2011, and PCTPatent Application Serial No. PCT/US2004/009910 filed Mar. 29, 2004 arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

An example commercial/advertising monitoring and verification system 100is schematically illustrated in FIG. 1. The illustrated system 100includes one or more video service providers 102 broadcasting videoand/or other programming and/or commercials, one or more monitoringstations 106 to collect, attempt to automatically identify, and storecommercials broadcast by the video service providers 102, and one ormore remote data processing centers 108 to collect and process the datacollected by the monitoring stations 106 into useful reports. As usedherein, the term “blank image” refers to any image or frame that has asubstantially constant brightness. A blank image may be a solid image,an image including one or more than one color, or any other image thathas a substantially constant brightness.

The video service providers 102 may be any type of video serviceprovider such as a cable television service provider, a satellitetelevision service provider, an internet content provider that provides,for example, streaming video content, and/or a radio frequency (RF)television service provider as shown in FIG. 1. The service provider 102may broadcast digital video signals. For example, the service provider102 may broadcast digital video signals over a wired connection such asa coaxial cable or over a wireless connection such as a satellite and/ora terrestrial broadcast system.

In the example of FIG. 1, each monitoring station 106 is illustrated asmonitoring the broadcasts of a particular type of service provider 102.However, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciatethat, in practice, some or all of the monitoring stations 106 maymonitor broadcasts from multiple service providers 102 (e.g., channel 2and channel 7) of the same or different types of services.

In the illustrated example, signals from the service providers 102 arereceived by the monitoring station(s) 106. The received signalstypically include content and advertisements/commercials. As explainedbelow, rather than identifying every portion of the broadcast signalsthey receive, the monitoring station(s) 106 distinguish the timesegments of the broadcast signal carrying commercials (and possiblycontent) from the time segments of the signal carrying content but nocommercials, and store and/or further process the time segments of thebroadcast signal containing commercials (or information representativeof the received commercials) while discarding the time segments of thebroadcast signal containing content. The monitoring station(s) 106 maystore this information in an analog and/or a digital form. For example,the monitoring station(s) 106 may store MPEG encoded video frames.

The monitoring station(s) 106 preferably have access to a database(which may be local or remote) storing codes and/or signatures of knowncommercials and correlating the known codes and/or signatures tocommercial names or other identifiers. A commercial name or identifierpreferably uniquely identifies a commercial advertisement.

The monitoring station(s) 106 periodically export the data they collectto a data processing center 108. The data processing center 108processes and/or compiles the information gathered by the monitoringstation(s) 106 into reports which may be sold to interested parties. Thereports preferably include such information as the name of theadvertisement, product name, sponsor, content, message, appearingpersonalities, time of broadcast, broadcast channel, program sponsoredby the advertisement, etc.

As mentioned above, the monitoring stations 106 preferably attempt toautomatically identify the commercials they detect. Therefore, theinformation provided to the remote processing center 108 preferablyidentifies the commercials logged by the monitoring station(s) 106.However, some commercials may not be identified by the monitoringstations 106. Therefore, the remote data processing center 108 mayinclude a central database to enable automatic identification ofcommercials that could not be automatically identified at the monitoringstations 106, and may also include one or more display devices such as atelevision or monitor to facilitate manual identification of commercialswhen, for example, automatic identification fails or is not possible.The television (if used) may be any type of television. For example, thetelevision may be an NTSC (National Television Standards Committee)compatible television, a high definition television (HDTV), a PCmonitor, etc. Additionally, although only one data processing center 108is shown in the example of FIG. 1, persons of ordinary skill in the artwill readily appreciate that more than one data processing center 108may alternatively be employed.

An example monitoring station 106 is shown in FIG. 2. The examplemonitoring station 106 of FIG. 2 may be used in the system of FIG. 1. Topermit the monitoring station 106 to simultaneously monitor a pluralityof stations, the monitoring station 106 is provided with a plurality oftuners 110A-110N. Each tuner 110A-110N may be implemented by aconventional tuner and may be supported with conventional signalreceiving and conditioning circuitry appropriate for the type ofbroadcast medium being monitored (e.g., a demodulator, an antennae, asatellite disk, an integrated receiver decoder, a decoder, etc.).

Because, in the illustrated example, the monitoring station 106 isintended to monitor the broadcast of commercials, each of the tuners110A-110N is provided with a commercial detection system. Each of thecommercial detection systems of the illustrated example includes abuffer 112A-112N to delay the signal tuned by the corresponding tuner110A-110N a time sufficient to determine if it contains one or morecommercials or contains content but no commercial, a timer 114A-114N totime intervals occurring between blank images, and a blank imagedetector 116A-116N to detect the occurrence of blank frames in thesignal tuned by the corresponding tuner 110A-110N. The structures andoperations of the blank image detectors 116A-116N are described infurther detail below. For now, it is sufficient to note that the blankimage detectors 116A-116N examine the digital broadcast signals tuned bytheir respective tuners 110A-110N for blank frames. This examination ispreferably performed without decompressing the signal. When a blankframe (or sequence of blank frames) is detected by one of the blankimage detectors 116A-116N, that blank image detector 116A-116N startsits corresponding timer 114A-114N and continues monitoring the broadcastsignal tuned by its corresponding tuner 110A-110N for the next blankframe (or sequence of blank frames). If the next blank frame (orsequence of blank frames) is detected within a predetermined length oftime after the first blank frame (or sequence of blank frames) isdetected (e.g., a time period typically associated with a commercialbreak such as five minutes), the timer 114A-114N associated with theblank image detector 116A-116N detecting the blank frames outputs asignal indicating that the portion of the broadcast signal occurringbetween the blank frames is a commercial or series of commercials, andthe data in the buffer is transferred to a memory for further processingas explained below. If the next sequential blank frame (or sequence ofblank frames) occurs more than the predetermined length of time afterthe first blank frame (or sequence of blank frames) is detected, thenthe portion of the broadcast signal occurring between the blank frames(or sequences of blank frames) is determined to not be a commercial, andthe timer 114A-114N is reset (i.e., restarted) without furtherprocessing the contents of the associated buffer 112A-112N. If thebuffers are implemented as ring buffers, there is no need to reset thetimers or to purge data from the buffers as the data will beautomatically overwritten unless exported to the memory for furtherprocessing.

When one of the blank image detectors 116A-116N determines that blankimage(s) are present in the signal tuned by its corresponding tuner114A-114N, the portion of the tuned signal stored in the correspondingbuffer 112A-112N (which preferably includes approximately 120 secondsbefore the first blank frame stored in the buffer, 120 seconds after thelast blank frame stored in the buffer, and the time between the firstand the last blank frame stored in the buffer) is time and date stampedwith a clock signal received from a clock and then written to a memory120. If, on the other hand, the portion of the broadcast signal storedin the buffer 112A-112N is determined not to contain one or more blankframe(s), the data in the buffer 112A-112N is not stored in the memory120. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that thetimers/frame counters 114A-114N may be replaced with one or moretimers/frame counters in the commercial identifier 126 such that theblank image detectors 116A-116N export the data surrounding a blankimage (e.g., 120 seconds before and 120 seconds after the occurrence ofa blank frame) whenever a blank image is detected.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the timers114A-114N may be implemented in many different ways. However, in theillustrated example, the timers 114A-114N are implemented by framecounters that increment when a new frame is detected.

To enable the monitoring station 106 to automatically identifycommercials, the monitoring station 106 is provided with acode/signature database 122. The code/signature database 122 storesunique codes and/or signatures in association with the unique names oridentifiers of the associated commercials. The database 122 of eachmonitoring station 106 preferably stores the commercials likely to bebroadcast in the broadcast region in which the monitoring station 106 islocated.

To export the data stored in the memory 120 of the monitoring station106 to a data processing center 108 and/or to update the database 122with new codes and/or signatures, the monitoring station 106 is furtherprovided with a communication device 124. The communication device 124may be implemented by any desired type of a communication device such asa modem.

To perform automatic identification of the commercials identified by themonitoring station 106, the monitoring station 106 is further providedwith a commercial identifier 126. The commercial identifier 126 operatesto extract codes and/or signatures from the time stamped recordsreceived by the memory 120 from the buffers 112A-112N and to compare theextracted codes and/or signatures to the codes/signatures stored in thedatabase 122. This comparison can be performed in any conventionalfashion. For example, hash code searching may be used to expedite thesignature matching process.

Irrespective of the searching/matching techniques employed, if a matchis detected, the commercial identifier 126 updates the correspondingrecord stored in the memory 120 with the identified commercial name oridentifier. The corresponding portion of the record has then beenidentified as containing the corresponding commercial. Because of thisconclusive identification, the commercial identifier 126 may replace thecode/signature in the corresponding portion of the record stored in thememory 120 with the corresponding commercial name/identifier to, forexample, reduce the size of the record.

As will be appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art, any orall of the portion of the signal before the first blank frame, theportion of the signal after the last blank frame and the portion of thesignal between the first and the last blank frames may contain one ormore commercials. Further, in the case of multiple commercials, adjacentcommercials may or may not be separated by one or more blank frames.Accordingly, the commercial identifier 126 is preferably adapted tosearch each record stored in the memory 120 for multiple commercials.This search may be informed, for example, by data such as the length ofa commercial already identified in the record. For instance, if a firstcommercial is identified as occurring immediately after the first blankframe, the first commercial is known from the database 122 to be 30seconds long, and the time between the first and the last blank frame inthe record is 60 seconds, the commercial identifier 126 will attempt toextract one or more codes or signatures from seconds 30-60 of the recordoccurring between the first and the second blank frames. The extractedcode/signature will then be compared to the data in the database 122 toattempt to identify a second commercial in the record. If no match isfound, the record will be marked for further processing (e.g., viaautomatic matching against a larger code/signature database and/or humanviewing) to identify any additional commercial(s) in the record. If amatch is found, the record is updated with the matching commercial nameor identifier and, if appropriate, the search for additional commercialsin the record continues.

By way of additional examples, one or more commercials may occur beforethe first blank frame or after the last blank frame. Accordingly, thecommercial identifier 126 preferably attempts to extract codes and/orsignatures from the portion of the record occurring before the firstblank frame and after the last blank frame. The extracted codes and/orsignatures are then compared to records from the database 122 in aconventional fashion as explained above. If a match is found, thematching commercial name or identifier is placed in the record asexplained above. If no match is found, the record may be marked forfurther processing by the central facility 108.

As mentioned above, the communication device 124 may be used to transferdata to and/or from the monitoring station 106. For example, thecommunication device 124 may be used to periodically update thecode/signature database 122 with new codes/signatures identified at thecentral facility 108. Additionally, the communication device 124 may beemployed, for example, to periodically export those records collected inthe memory 120 that have been processed by the commercial identifier 126to the data processing center 108. For example, the communication device124 may be actuated to export the data/records when the memory 120reaches a predetermined level of fullness, to export the data atpredetermined time(s), and/or to export the data at predetermined timeintervals.

The example monitoring station 106 of FIG. 2 is structured to identifyblank video images from compressed digital video information. The blankvideo images may be detected without unpacking/uncompressing the digitalvideo information, thereby achieving blank frame detection more quicklyand with less decoding overhead than is required by prior art systems.Before discussing the example monitoring station 106 in further detail,a brief discussion relating to digital video signal compression is givenbelow to provide a context for understanding the operation of themonitoring station.

The following discussion is based primarily on the Moving PicturesExpert Group (MPEG) video compression standard. The MPEG standard is oneparticularly well-known digital video compression standard that may beused in conjunction with the example methods and apparatus describedherein. However, MPEG video compression techniques are only oneparticular example manner in which digital video information may becompressed for use with the example methods and apparatus disclosedherein. Therefore, those having ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the example apparatus and methods disclosed herein maybe similarly applied in conjunction with other digital video compressionschemes.

In general, video compression schemes operate based on the assumptionthat video sequences or programs typically contain a relatively largeamount of temporally and/or spatially redundant information. Temporalredundancy occurs between successive frames or images making up a videosequence because there are relatively few changes to the color andbrightness of large portions of the successive images or frames makingup the video sequence. On the other hand, spatial redundancy occurswithin a given video frame or image because adjacent pixels or areaswithin an image or frame are often of the same or similar color andintensity or brightness. Thus, by eliminating temporally and spatiallyredundant video information from a video program prior to itstransmission, the amount of bandwidth required to transmit the videoprogram can be reduced dramatically.

The data reduction achieved by a compression scheme is commonlyexpressed as a compression ratio. Compression ratios are usuallycalculated by dividing the amount of video data making up an originalsequence of video images by the amount of compressed data used totransmit that video data. Compression ratios of between about 10:1 andabout 100:1 are commonly achieved using an MPEG-based video compressionscheme.

Video compression schemes also typically eliminate certain types andamounts of video information that is not necessarily redundant, butwhich, if eliminated, is not perceptibly noticeable or offensive to thehuman eye. For example, the human eye is significantly more sensitive tovariations in brightness than variations in color or hue. As a result,video compression schemes often reduce the amount of digital informationpertaining to color or hue without adversely impacting the perceivedquality of an image extracted from compressed image information. Inaddition, the human eye has greater difficulty perceiving rapidvariation of brightness and/or color, shade or hue across an image(i.e., the higher frequency components that compose an image). As aresult, video compression schemes can zero-out or eliminate thetransmission or processing of the higher frequency components of animage without adversely impacting the perceived quality of the image.

FIG. 3 depicts an example sequence 200 of digital video images or frames202, 204, 206, 208 and 210 that may be associated with a digitaltelevision program or the like. The images or frames 202-210 may make upa group of pictures (GOP) for purposes of MPEG encoding (i.e.,compression) to be transmitted, stored or otherwise conveyed for use byan MPEG decoder associated with an output device (e.g., a television,video monitor, computer screen, etc.)

Initially, each of the images or frames 202-210 is composed ofuncompressed digital information representing display pixels arranged ina plurality of rows and columns to be displayed on an output device in aparticular format at a particular rate. For example, each of the frames202-210 may contain sufficient pixel information to display an image ora frame on a raster scan-based display having 480 rows or lines of 720pixels (i.e., columns). Displaying a sequence of frames at, for example,a rate of 30 frames per second may create the impression of a smoothlymoving video image. Of course, many other display formats and ratescould be used instead.

The amount of digital data required to represent each pixel within eachof the frames or images 202-210 depends on the color model used tocreate the images 202-210. For example, if the well-known Red, Green,Blue (RGB) color model is used, eight bits are used to represent theamount of each image or color component used for each pixel. Thus, for adigital image generated using the RGB color model, a total oftwenty-four bits of data are required to represent each pixel.

During the MPEG compression processes, each of the images or frames202-210 is sub-divided into a sequence of macro blocks 212. The macroblocks 212 are grouped into slices 222 such that each frame 202-210comprises a plurality of slices 222 and each slice 222 comprises aplurality of macro blocks 212 as shown in the example of FIG. 3. Eachmacro block 212 is composed of 16×16 pixels (i.e., sixteen rows ofsixteen pixels). The resulting sequences of macro blocks 212 aremaintained in a raster scan order. By way of example, the image or frame204 is sub-divided into slices 222 of macro blocks 212, each of whichincludes RGB data for 16×16 or 256 pixels.

The MPEG compression process converts the RGB data (i.e., thetwenty-four bits of information) for each pixel within the macro blocks212 into the well-known YUV color model. In general, the YUV color modelrepresents each pixel using a luminance value denoted as Y and twochrominance values denoted as Cr and Cb. However, because the human eyeis significantly less sensitive to color changes, the MPEG compressionprocess decimates the chrominance information for each of the macroblocks 212 via a horizontal and vertical (i.e., row and column)sub-sampling process. In particular, the decimation process averages thechrominance information (i.e., the Cr and Cb values) for groups of fourpixels arranged in two rows and two columns, discards the individualchrominance values making up the averages and retains the averagevalues. In this manner, the MPEG compression process compresses thechrominance information required to display an image by a factor of fourwithout adversely affecting the perceptible quality of the image whendisplayed to a human.

By way of example, following the color model conversion and chrominancedecimation processes, a macro block 212 includes four 8×8 luminanceblocks 230, 232, 234 and 236 and two 8×8 chrominance blocks 238 and 240.Together, these luminance blocks 230-236 and chrominance blocks 238-240represent the color and intensity of the group of 16×16 pixelsassociated with the corresponding macro block 212. Each of the blocks230-240 is composed of eight rows and eight columns of eight bit values(i.e., bytes). For example, the luminance block 236 is composed of agrid where each of the squares of the grid represents an eight bitluminance value associated with a particular pixel within the macroblock 212. Of course, because the chrominance information has beendecimated as described above, each of the eight bit values within the8×8 chrominance blocks 238 and 240 represents the average colorinformation for a group of four pixels associated with the correspondingmacro block 212.

After converting the color model and decimating the chrominanceinformation, the MPEG compression scheme processes the images or frames202-210, which are now represented using the decimated YUV data, toeliminate or reduce temporal redundancy. The MPEG compression schemeuses motion-compensated inter-frame prediction to reduce the amount ofdata required to regenerate a sequence of video frames. In general, theMPEG compression scheme periodically generates reference frames (knownas Intra-frames or I-frames) that are substantially still video imagesthat can be regenerated (i.e., displayed) without reference to any otherframes or images. A series of video frames preceding and/or following areference frame or I-frame are either Predictive-frames (commonly knownas P-frames) or Bidirectionally predictive-frames (commonly known asB-frames). P-frames may contain motion vectors and error informationrelating the P-frame to an I-frame or to one or more preceding P-frames,while B-frames may contain motion vectors and error information relatingto preceding and/or subsequent I-frames or P-frames. Because substantialportions (e.g., a background) of a video image typically do not changesignificantly (or at all) from one frame to the next (i.e., there is asignificant amount of temporal redundancy), the amount of informationneeded to represent each P-frame and B-frame can be significantly lessthan the amount of information needed to represent an I-frame.

During an MPEG compression process, each of the frames or images 202-210comprising the video sequence 200 are designated by the MPEG encoder asone of an I-frame, a P-frame or a B-frame. The relatively complex mannerin which the MPEG compression process designates frames as I-frames,P-frames and B-frames is well-known in the art and is not described infurther detail herein.

Once the MPEG compression process has reduced or eliminated temporallyredundant inter-frame information by converting a sequence of videoimages into a sequence of I-frames, P-frames and B-frames, the MPEGcompression scheme processes these frames to remove spatial redundancy.The MPEG compression scheme recognizes that within a given 16×16 pixelmacro block 212 there is typically a repeatable pattern of pixelinformation and/or the pixel information does not vary significantly(e.g., perceptibly) across the macro block.

To eliminate the spatially redundant information, the MPEG compressionscheme uses a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to convert each of the 8×8blocks 230-240 comprising the macro blocks 212 of the I-frames, P-framesand B-frames from the spatial domain into the frequency domain. In thespatial domain, each square (i.e., byte) within an 8×8 luminance block230-236 corresponds to a physical pixel location (or in the case of achrominance block 238, 240, each square (i.e., byte) corresponds to fourpixel locations), whereas in the frequency domain, each square withinthe 8×8 block produced by the DCT conversion corresponds to a frequencyof a cosine waveform representing a frequency component of the pixeldata. Because there is typically very little variation in intensity andcolor across a 16×16 pixel macro block 212, most macro blocks 212 can berepresented in the frequency domain using a direct current (DC)component (i.e., a zero frequency component or offset) and few, if any,low frequency (AC) components. As is well known, the DCT of an 8×8luminance block 230-236 of spatial pixel information (e.g., an 8×8 blockof luminance information where each square within the block 230-236represents an eight bit value associated with a physical pixel location)results in an 8×8 block of frequency domain information, where eachsquare contains an amplitude coefficient for a cosine waveform of aparticular frequency (see the example grid of FIG. 4 showing theluminance block 236 in the frequency domain). The block 250 in the upperleft corner of the frequency domain grid 236 is a DC value (e.g., theaverage luminance for the 8×8 spatial domain block 236). The values inthe grid squares other than the upper left corner block 250 represent ACvalues. The horizontal frequency of these AC values increase as onemoves across rows to the right of the upper left corner block 250 andthe vertical frequency of these AC values increase as one moves downcolumns in the grid 236.

In practice, performing a DCT and quantization on each of the 8×8 blocks230-240 results in frequency domain blocks having relatively fewcoefficient values near the upper left corner of the 8×8 frequencydomain blocks 230-240 and a relatively large number of zero or near zerocoefficients in the majority of the AC squares making up the remaindersof the blocks 230-240. Therefore, by using a run-length encoding schemeand not individually transmitting the zero and near zero frequencydomain coefficients, the MPEG compression process can substantiallyreduce the amount of data needed to reconstitute the compressed imagewithout perceptibly degrading the image quality.

To illustrate the manner in which spatially redundant information can beeliminated, consider an 8×8 block of pixel luminance information suchas, for example, the block 236 of FIG. 3. If the luminance is constant(e.g., a digital value of 128) across the block 236, each of theluminance values associated with the 64 squares making up the grid willcontain the value 128. Performing a DCT on such an 8×8 luminance blockwill result in an 8×8 luminance block (see FIG. 4) in which the upperleft corner square 250 contains the DC value 128 and all other squaresor frequency domain coefficients are equal to zero (i.e., because theluminance is constant, there are no AC components). Taking advantage ofthis scheme, instead of transmitting all 64 values, run length encodingtransmits only four numbers to represent the luminance values for all ofthe pixels associated with the original 8×8 spatial domain block 236. Inother words, all 64 luminance values do not have to be transmitted andprocessed by an MPEG decoder. Instead, using the run-length encodingscheme, only four values (e.g., 001 128 063 000) are transmitted to theMPEG decoder.

In general, the MPEG compression process achieves relatively highcompression ratios by employing techniques such as, for example,frequency coefficient quantization (e.g., reducing the number of bitsneeded or allocated for each frequency domain coefficient), and zigzagsequence coding in conjunction with run-length encoding to eliminate theindividual transmission of coefficients having a same value. Suchtechniques are well-known in the art and, thus, are not discussedfurther herein.

It should be noted, however, that a further compression is performedwhen encoding a macro block 212. In particular, the first luminanceblock 230 in a macro block 212 includes an absolute DC value in itsupper left hand square 250. The DC values of the remaining luminanceblocks 232-236 are relative DC values reflecting any difference betweenthe DC value associated with the corresponding luminance block 232-236and the absolute DC value stored in the first luminance block 230.Therefore, if the luminance is constant across all of the luminanceblocks 232-236 in a macro block 212, all of the luminance blocks 230-236in the macro block 212 may be differential encoded to reflect the singleDC luminance value (i.e., the absolute DC value from the first luminanceblock 230) and the following zero values.

An additional encoding method deserves mention here. In particular, inthe MPEG II protocol, an entropy encoding scheme is used to reduce thenumber of bits required to transmit data. In the MPEG II entropyencoding scheme, statistical studies are used to develop a look up tableassociating values with codes. The most frequently used codes (asindicated by the statistical studies) are assigned the shortest codes toreduce the number of bits typically required to transmit data. If suchan encoding scheme is used, the blank image detectors 116A-116N shouldbe provided with access to the codes (e.g., to the look-up table) toenable proper interpretation of the data in the macro blocks. In otherwords, irrespective of the coding scheme employed, the blank imageidentifiers 116A-116N should be informed of the coding scheme toproperly analyze the broadcast stream.

A block diagram of an example blank image detector 300 is illustrated inFIG. 5. In the illustrated example, the blank image detector 300includes a blank frame candidate identifier 301 and a blank frame tester302. As explained in detail below, the blank frame candidate identifier301 examines the total number of bits or bytes in a frame to determineif the frame has a data size small enough to potentially be a blankframe. If so, the blank frame candidate identifier 301 examinespredetermined areas of the frame (e.g., rows, groups of rows, etc.) todetermine if more than a predetermined number of the areas includesubstantially the same number of bytes or bits of data. If either ofthese thresholds are not met, the blank image detector 300 concludesthat the associated frame is not blank and proceeds to analyze the nextframe. If, however, the frame has a sufficiently small data size andmore than the predetermined number of areas in the frame includesubstantially the same number of bytes or bits of data, the frame may bea blank frame. Accordingly, the blank frame tester 302 examines thecandidate frame (i.e., the frame identified by the blank frame candidateidentifier 301 as having a sufficiently small data size and more thanthe predetermined number of areas with substantially the same number ofbytes or bits of data) to determine if it is a blank frame.

In the illustrated example, the blank frame candidate identifier 301takes advantage of the fact that blank images are low complexity images.As such, blank images contain a small amount of data and have asubstantially constant bit or byte allocation distribution such thatequal sized and shaped areas of the blank image are represented bysubstantially the same relatively low number of bits or bytes.Therefore, any image that has too many bits/bytes or has a complex bitor byte allocation distribution is too complex to be blank and can beimmediately discarded as a non-blank image without conducting a moredetailed examination of the frame.

In the illustrated example, the blank frame tester 302 determines if thecandidate frame is blank by examining the DC values of the luminanceblocks in one predetermined area (e.g., in one slice) of the frame. Inparticular, the example blank frame tester 302 of FIG. 5 identifiesblank images by counting entropy codes representing zero in the DCvalues in the luminance blocks 230-236 of a slice of the frame inquestion, and by determining if the number of DC values containingentropy codes representing zero (i.e., no change) exceeds a threshold.If that threshold is exceeded, the blank frame tester 302 identifies theframe as a blank frame. If the threshold is not exceeded, the blankframe tester 302 identifies the frame as a non-blank frame. In theillustrated example, both the blank frame candidate identifier 301 andthe blank frame tester 302 operate on the frames without decoding thesame.

An example blank frame candidate identifier 301 is illustrated in FIG.6. The example blank frame candidate identifier 301 of FIG. 6 identifiesa blank frame candidate by counting or calculating the number of bits orbytes contained in a frame and, if the bit/byte count for the frame issufficiently low, by counting the number of bits or bytes inpredetermined areas comprising the frame. The predetermined areas arepreferably non-overlapping areas that cover the entire frame. Forexample, the predetermined areas may be rows of the frame or blocks ofrows of the frame. In the illustrated example, each of the predeterminedareas is a block of sixteen rows. If a predetermined percentage of theareas in a frame have substantially the same number of bytes, each areasof the frame exhibits substantially the same complexity and the frameis, thus, identified as a blank image candidate.

In the illustrated example, the blank frame candidate identifier 301includes a parser 502, a buffer 504, a frame byte calculator 505, anarea byte counter 506, an area buffer 508, an area count comparator 514,and a blank frame threshold 516 interconnected as shown.

As will be appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art, toenable interpretation of a broadcast stream of digital data, varioussynchronization codes are embedded in the stream. For example, a code ormark is inserted to identify the start of every frame and the beginningof every slice in a frame. The parser 502 takes advantage of thepresence of these codes to populate a slice address table 520 as shownin FIG. 7. In particular, without decoding the frames, the parser 502responds to the start of each new frame by recording the slice verticalposition or row address and start address of each slice in the slicetable 520. These addresses identify the physical locations of the slicesin the memory buffer. The table 520 may be implemented in any desiredfashion. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that theaddress values shown in FIG. 7 are simplified for purposes ofillustration.

The buffer 504 stores one or more video frames 202-210 to save thecontext for the commercial identifier 126. The buffer 504 may be anytype of memory device. For example, the buffer 504 may be static randomaccess memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), flash memory,magnetic memory, etc.

After or as the parser 502 completes the table 520, the frame bytecalculator 505 calculates the number of bits or bytes contained in theframe. If the number of bits/bytes in the frame exceeds a predeterminedthreshold, the frame is too complex to be blank, and, thus, the blankframe candidate identifier 301 discards the frame as non-blank. If,however, the byte count of the frame (for example, as reflected by theaddresses in the table 520) does not exceed the threshold, the frame maybe blank. Accordingly, the area byte calculator 506 calculates thenumber of bytes contained in each of the predetermined areas of thesubject frame. In particular, the area byte calculator 506 analyzes thetable 520 to calculate how many bytes are in each of the areas. In theillustrated example, each of the predetermined areas is a row of theframe. As used herein, in the MPEG context, the term “row” refers to astack of sixteen display rows. For instance, in the example of FIG. 7,the start address of the first slice in row 2 is 1001 and the startaddress of the first slice in row 1 is 1. Therefore, row 1 includes 1000bytes (i.e., 1001−1=1000).

In some instances, a row may contain more than one slice. Since the areabyte calculator 506 is seeking to determine the number of bytes per row,it effectively combines slices occurring on the same row by calculatingthe difference between the start address of the first slice on a givenrow and the start address of the first slice on the next row followingthe given row. Looking at a more concrete example, in FIG. 7, two slicesare located on row 2. Therefore, to calculate the number of bytes on rowtwo, the area byte calculator 506 subtracts the start address of slice 2(i.e., the first slice on row 2) from the start address of slice 4(i.e., the first slice on row 3). This calculation reveals that row 2contains 1000 bytes (i.e., 2001 (the start address of slice 4)−1001 (thestart address of slice 2)=1000).

The area byte calculator 506 writes the number of bytes it calculatesfor each row into the area buffer 508 for further processing. The areabuffer 508 may be implemented in any desired fashion. For example, itmay be implemented like the buffer 504.

When the area buffer 508 is filled with the data for each area of aframe, the area count comparator 514 analyzes the area byte countsstored in the area buffer 508 to determine if each of the areas containssubstantially the same number of bytes. If each of the areas containssubstantially the same number of bytes, than the frame is a blank framecandidate.

The area count comparator 514 may analyze the area byte counts in any ofa number of manners. For example, the area count comparator 514 maydiscard the lowest 10% and the highest 10% of the area byte countsstored in the area buffer 508, and then calculate the standard deviationof the remaining area byte counts. Once the standard deviation iscomputed, the area count comparator 514 may compare the standarddeviation to a blank frame candidate threshold 516. If the standarddeviation is greater than the blank frame candidate threshold, then theframe is not a blank frame. Otherwise, if the standard deviation is lessthan the blank frame candidate threshold 516, the blank frame candidateidentifier 301 identifies the frame as a blank frame candidate.

The blank frame candidate threshold value 516 may be set to any desiredvalue. For example, it may be set to correspond to a standard deviationindicating that the number of bytes in the middle 80% of the areas of aframe vary by less than any desired number of bytes.

When the blank frame candidate identifier 301 identifies a blank framecandidate, the blank frame tester 302 is activated to determine whetherthe blank frame candidate is indeed a blank frame. Whereas the blankframe candidate identifier 301 utilizes tests that err on the side ofidentifying some non-blank frames as blank frame candidates, the blankframe tester 302 utilizes a more precise test to determine if a blankframe candidate identified by the blank frame candidate identifier 301is in fact a blank frame. This multi-level testing process is performedfor increased processing efficiency and to exclude frames from the poolof blank frame candidates that would falsely be identified as blank bythe blank frame tester 302. Efficiency is improved in that most framesare not blank frames and, thus, can be excluded as non-blank framesbased on their overall data size (i.e., total bit or byte count) and/oron their bit or byte allocation distribution without conducting a moredetailed examination of the frame. False identification of non-blankframes as blank is avoided in instances where, a complex image (i.e., anon-blank image with a relatively large byte allocation) exhibits asubstantially constant average brightness. The blank frame tester 302might incorrectly identify such frames as blank if they are not excludedon the size test by the candidate identifier 301.

In the illustrated example, the blank frame tester 302 performs its teston one area (e.g., one slice) of the blank frame candidate. If thetested slice of the blank frame candidate indicates that the candidateis indeed a blank frame, the blank frame tester 302 identifies the blankframe candidate as a blank frame. Any slice in the blank frame candidatemay be tested by the blank frame tester 302. However, it is preferablethat the slice not be located in one of the rows discarded by the blankframe identifier 301 in developing the standard deviation value notedabove (i.e., the slice should not be located in one of the rows in thetop 10% of byte counts or one of the rows with the lowest 10% of bytecounts. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that,although the illustrated blank frame tester 302 examines only one slice,more than one slice (e.g., all of the slices in a frame or less than allof the slices in a frame) may alternatively be examined.

An example blank frame tester 302 is illustrated in FIG. 8. In theillustrated example, the blank frame tester 302 includes a block parser303, a buffer 304, a DC value comparator 306, a DC value counter 308,and a comparator 310 interconnected as shown. As mentioned above, theblank frame tester 302 analyzes one of the slices in a blank framecandidate to determine if the candidate frame is indeed a blank frame.

The parser 303 may be any type of parser. In the illustrated example,the parser 303 receives an MPEG blank frame candidate from the blankframe candidate identifier 301 and unpacks the digital data in aselected slice of the blank frame candidate into a plurality ofluminance blocks 230-236. However, the parser 303 need not uncompressthe selected slice. Once the digital data in the selected slice isunpacked, the parser 303 stores the luminance blocks 230-236 from thatslice in the buffer 304. Persons of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the parser 303 may be structured to operate inaccordance with MPEG or video compression standards other than MPEG.

The buffer 304 may store one or more video frames 202-210 as well as theplurality of luminance blocks 230-236 corresponding to the selectedslice of the blank frame candidate. The buffer 304 may be any type ofmemory device. For example, the buffer 304 may be static random accessmemory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), flash memory,magnetic memory, etc.

As described in detail above, each luminance block 230-236 holds a DCvalue in its upper left hand square 250 and those DC values areindicative of the average brightness for the corresponding luminanceblock 230-236. The DC value comparator 306 of the example of FIG. 8retrieves and compares the DC values of each sequential pair ofluminance blocks 230-236 in the selected slice. As shown in FIG. 9,“sequential pairs of luminance blocks” are defined by a zigzagprocessing pattern. In particular, the DC value comparator 306 firstcompares the DC values from the first and second luminance blocks 230and 232 of a first macro block, then compares the DC values from thesecond and third luminance blocks 232 and 234 of the first macro block,then compares the DC values from third and last luminance blocks 234 and236 of the first macro block, and then compares the DC value from thelast luminance block 236 of the first macro block and the DC value fromthe first luminance block 230 of a next macro block. This examinationpattern is repeated until all of the luminance blocks in all of themacro blocks of the selected slice have been examined. Persons ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate that, because all of the DCvalues in a slice besides the first DC value in that slice are typicallyrelative values, “comparing DC values” in the case of an absolute DCvalue followed by a relative DC value simply comprises reading therelative DC value since the relative DC value is inherently the resultof a comparison between the absolute DC value of the previous block andthe absolute value of the following block.

The DC value comparator 306 compares the DC values of the sequentialpairs of luminance blocks 230-236 to determine if there is a differencein average brightness between the pair of luminance blocks. If no changeis detected (e.g., the compared DC values are substantially identical),the DC value comparator 306 outputs a no change signal (e.g., a logichigh signal). Because noise can cause some unintended brightnesschanges, the DC comparator 306 may be structured to output the no changesignal whenever the difference between the compared DC values is zero orwithin a predetermined range of zero.

The output of the DC value comparator 306 is communicated to the DCvalue counter 308. The DC value counter 308 increments in response toevery no change signal received from the DC value comparator 306. The DCvalue counter 308 is re-set to zero whenever examination of a new slicebegins.

The comparator 310 compares the value stored in the DC value counter 308to a predetermined threshold value 312. If the DC value counter 308counts more than the threshold value 306 of no change signals from theDC value comparator 306, the comparator 310 outputs a blank image signalindicating that the examined blank frame candidate is a blank frame. Thepredetermined threshold value 312 may be set to any desired value. Forexample, it may be set to correspond to a number equivalent to anydesired percentage of the total number of luminance blocks 230-236contained in a slice (e.g., 51%, 90%, etc.).

In a preferred alternative example illustrated in FIG. 8A, the buffer304, the DC value comparator 306 and the DC value counter 308 areeliminated and replaced with a histogram generator 318. The histogramgenerator 318 receives the DC values for a given slice from the parser303 and creates a histogram reflecting the DC values counted in theslice. For example, a DC value of 0 is reflected in the histogram (e.g.,by a unit block or line) at a position indicative of 0, a DC value of 1is reflected in the histogram at a position indicative of 1, etc. Afterall of the DC values in the slice have been recorded in the histogram,the histogram is examined by the comparator 310 to determine if theslice is a blank slice. The histogram of a blank slice should exhibit apeak at a single value indicating substantially constant brightness. Thehistogram should be zero at all other DC values if the slice is a blankslice. However, because of noise, there may be shorter peaks around thetallest peak. Accordingly, the comparator 310 sums the peak heights fora window of values around the largest peak value. If the summed valueexceeds a threshold 312, the blank frame tester 302 identifies the frameas a blank frame. Otherwise, the frame is not blank and is discarded.

Stated more precisely, if we let: (a) H[i] be a histogram, where i=0, .. . , 255; (b) p=arg max H[i], where i=0, . . . , 255 (i.e., p is anumber such that H[p]>=H[i] for all i), (c) s=Sum(H[i]) for i from p-wto p+w, where w is the window width, (e.g., 5), and (d) S=Sum(H[i]),where i=0, . . . , 255, then if (s/S>threshold), the frame is blank,where threshold is, for example, 95%.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that, although inthe preferred examples described above, the blank frame identifier 300is implemented as a two stage device including a blank frame candidateidentifier 301 and a blank frame tester 302, other implementations arelikewise appropriate. For example, if a less precise blank frameidentifier 300 is acceptable, the blank frame identifier 300 may beimplemented to exclude the blank frame tester 302 such that blank framecandidates identified by the blank frame candidate identifier 301 areall accepted as blank frames. In such an approach, it may be desirableto tighten the standard for identifying blank frame candidates by, forexample, permitting less variance in byte length from area to area(e.g., row to row) in a frame identified as blank.

As another alternative, the blank frame identifier 300 may beimplemented to exclude the blank frame candidate identifier 301 suchthat the blank frame tester 302 tests every frame to determine if it isa blank frame. In such an approach, it is desirable to have the blankframe tester 302 examine the DC values in the luminance blocks in morethan one slice of the frame to determine if the corresponding frame isindeed blank. For example, the blank frame tester 302 may examine all ofthe luminance blocks in a frame, or the luminance blocks of apredetermined number of slices in the frame (which may be all of theslices in the frame or less than all of the slices in the frame).

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the blank image detector 300 of FIG. 5 is shown in FIGS.10A-10C. In this example, the machine readable instructions comprise aprogram for execution by a processor such as the processor 2004 shown inthe example computer discussed below in connection with FIG. 18. Theprogram may be embodied in software stored on a tangible medium such asa CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a digital versatile disk (DVD),or a memory associated with the processor 2004, but persons of ordinaryskill in the art will readily appreciate that the entire program and/orparts thereof could alternatively be executed by a device other than theprocessor 2004 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware in awell known manner. For example, any or all of the parser 303, the DCvalue comparator 306, the DC value counter 308, the comparator 310, thethreshold 312, the parser 502, the frame byte calculator 505, the areabyte counter 506, the area comparator 508, the area count comparator514, the histogram generator, and/or the blank frame threshold 516,could be implemented by software, hardware, and/or firmware. Further,although the example program is described with reference to theflowchart illustrated in FIGS. 10A-10C, persons of ordinary skill in theart will readily appreciate that many other methods of implementing theexample blank image detector 300 may alternatively be used. For example,the order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or some of theblocks described may be changed, eliminated, or combined. For instance,the blocks may be modified to implement any of the alternativesexplained above.

The program of FIGS. 10A-10B begins when a new frame is received fromthe corresponding tuner 114A-114N (block 350). The frame byte calculator505, the area byte calculator 506, the area buffer 508, and the loopcounters (I and K) are reset when a new frame is received (block 350).The frame byte calculator 505 determines if the total number of bits orbytes in the frame exceeds a predetermined threshold (block 351). If thethreshold is exceeded, the frame is not blank and control returns toblock 350 where processing of the next frame begins. Otherwise, if theframe exhibits a sufficiently low bit/byte count to potentially beblank, the parser 502 then constructs a slice table 520 such as thatshown in FIG. 7 and the area byte calculator 506 begins calculating therow byte counts. In the illustrated example, the parser 502 constructsthe slice table 520 by examining the frame to find the start address forthe first slice (i.e., slice I) in the frame (block 352). It then findsthe start address of the next slice (i.e., slice K) in the frame (block352). In the MPEG II context, if the vertical position of the next sliceK is the same as the vertical position for the slice I (block 356), thenslice I and slice K are at least partially located in the same row.Accordingly, their byte counts are attributed to the same row I. To thisend, the counter K is incremented by one (block 358) and control returnsto block 354.

Control continues to loop through blocks 354-358 until a slice K havinga vertical position different than the row address of slice I is found(block 356). When such a slice K is found, the area byte calculator 506computes the number of bytes in the row I associated with slice I bysubtracting the start address of slice K from the start address of sliceI (block 360). The byte count is recorded in the area buffer 508.

The blank frame candidate identifier 301 then determines if the lastbyte count has been calculated (block 362). If not, the counter I is setequal to the value in the counter K (block 364), and control returns toblock 352. Control continues to loop through blocks 352-364 until thearea byte calculator 506 has completed the area byte calculations forthe entire frame. Control then advance to block 366.

At block 366, the area count comparator 514 begins analyzing the areabyte counts in the area buffer 508 to determine if the frame is a blankframe candidate. In the illustrated example, the area count comparatorperforms this task by dropping the top 10% of area byte counts and thebottom 10% of area byte counts (block 366). The area count comparator514 then calculates the standard deviation of the remaining (i.e., theremaining 80%) area byte counts (block 368). The area count comparator514 then compares the computed standard deviation to the blank framethreshold 516 (block 370). If the standard deviation exceeds the blankframe threshold (block 370), the frame is not a blank frame candidate.Accordingly, control returns to block 350 where the next frame isanalyzed as explained above. If, however, the standard deviation doesnot exceed the blank frame threshold (block 370), the frame is a blankframe candidate. Accordingly, control advances to block 400 (FIG. 10B)where the blank frame tester 302 analyzes a slice from the candidateframe to determine if the candidate frame is a blank frame.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 10B, the blank frame tester 302 beginsanalyzing the candidate frame by parsing the slice to review intoluminance blocks and resetting the DC value counter 308 (block 400). TheDC value comparator 306 then retrieves the first and second DC valuesfrom the luminance blocks of the slice (block 402 & 404). The DC valuecomparator 306 compares the retrieved DC values to one another by, forexample, comparing the absolute value of the difference between theretrieved DC values to a predetermined threshold (block 406). (In thecase of an absolute DC value paired with a relative DC value, thecomparison may comprise taking the absolute value of the relative DCvalue and then comparing that absolute value to the threshold.) If thethreshold is exceeded (block 406), control advances to block 410. If thethreshold is not exceeded (block 406), the counter 308 increments (block408) before control advances to block 410.

At block 410, the DC value comparator 306 determines if the last blockin the slice has been analyzed. If not, the second DC value is writteninto the first DC value variable (block 412). Control then returns toblock 404 where the DC value of the next luminance block is retrieved toinitiate the next DC value comparison.

Once all of the sequential DC values have been compared (block 410),control advances to block 414. At block 414, the comparator 310 comparesthe value stored in the counter 308 to a predetermined blank framethreshold 312. If the blank frame threshold is exceeded by the countervalue (block 414), a blank image signal is output (block 416). Controlthen returns to block 350 (FIG. 10A) to initiate processing of the nextframe. If the blank frame threshold is not exceeded (block 414), controlreturns to block 350 (FIG. 10A) without generating the blank imagesignal.

As explained above, the blank frame detection approach illustrated byFIG. 10B will result in false identification of non-blank frames asblank frames in situations where, for example, the difference betweenadjacent DC values slowly increments (e.g., a ramp function). Toovercome this issue and achieve improved accuracy, in the example ofFIG. 8A, the DC value counter 308 and the DC value comparator 306 arereplaced by a histogram generator 318. An example manner to implementthe apparatus of FIG. 8A is illustrated in FIG. 10C. The flowchart ofFIG. 10C replaces the flowchart of FIG. 10B in the implementation ofFIG. 8A.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 10C, the blank frame tester of FIG. 8Abegins analyzing the candidate frame by parsing the slice to review intoluminance blocks and resetting the histogram (block 400). The histogramgenerator 318 receives the DC values for a given slice from the parser303 (block 404) and adds them to a histogram reflecting the DC values inthe slice. (block 409).

At block 410, the histogram generator 318 determines if the last blockin the slice has been analyzed. If not, control returns to block 404where the DC value of the next luminance block is received to continuethe process of mapping all (or substantially all) of the DC values in aslice to a histogram.

Once all (or substantially all) of the DC values in a slice have beenadded to the histogram (block 410), control advances to block 415. Atblock 415, the comparator 310 compares the sum of the peaks reflected inthe histogram in a window surrounding the highest peak value to apredetermined blank frame threshold 312. If the blank frame threshold(e.g., 95% of the DC values in a slice) is exceeded by the sum of thepeaks located in a predetermined area around the highest peak value(block 415), a blank image signal is output (block 416). Control thenreturns to block 350 (FIG. 10A) to initiate processing of the nextframe. If the blank frame threshold is not exceeded (block 415), controlreturns to block 350 (FIG. 10A) without generating the blank imagesignal.

As explained above, in either the example of FIG. 8 or the example ofFIG. 8A, the blank image signal is output to the timer 114A-114Ncorresponding to the blank image detector 116A-116N. If the timer112A-112N detects a pair of blank image signals which occur less than apredetermined time length apart (and perhaps more than a minimum timelength apart), the timer 114A-114N causes the buffer 112A-112N totransfer its contents to the memory 120 so the commercial identifier 126may analyze the data to determine if one or more commercials are presentas explained above. Otherwise, the timer 114A-114N resets itself withoutcausing the buffer 112A-112N to transfer its contents to the memory 120.

In the alternative where the timers 114A-114N are replaced with one ormore timers at the commercial identifier 126, the blank image signal isoutput to the buffer 112A-112N corresponding to the blank image detector116A-116N. The buffer 112A-112N responds by transferring its contents tothe memory 120 so the commercial identifier 126 may analyze the data todetermine if one or more commercials are present as explained above.Otherwise, if a blank image signal is not output by the blank imagedetector 116A-116N, no action is taken and the analysis of the datastream continues in search of blank frames.

Recently, broadcasters have begun transmitting two or more programswithin the same broadcast signal wherein one of the programs is intendedto be viewed in a primary viewing window and a second one of theprograms is intended to be viewed in a secondary viewing window. Thesecondary viewing window is typically smaller than the primary viewingwindow. This type of display is commonly referred to as apicture-in-picture (PIP) display and the secondary viewing window iscommonly referred to as the picture-in-picture window.

The use of primary and secondary windows permits the broadcaster topresent multiple programs or other content on a single screen. Forexample, a broadcaster may present a news program wherein a commentatoris shown in a primary viewing window and a live action news report isshown in the secondary window or vice versa. Alternatively, the twoprograms may be unrelated. For example, a broadcasting station may beobligated to broadcast the scrolling credits at the end of a movie.Since this may not be interesting to a number of viewers, thebroadcasting station may choose to broadcast the credits in a primarywindow and an advertisement for another program, a news update, or othercontent or advertisements in a secondary window or vice versa. Either orboth of the unrelated programs may carry an advertisement. Thus, tomonitor broadcasting of commercials in the primary and secondary windowswithout resorting to recording all of the broadcast content, it isdesirable to detect instances when the primary viewing window is a blankimage and instances when the secondary viewing window is a blank image.As explained above, these blank images are inserted between content andcommercials. By timing the duration between such blank images, it ispossible to determine if the material broadcast in the interval betweenthe blank images is a commercial or content with a reasonable level ofaccuracy.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example screen 700 carrying a primary viewingwindow 702 and a secondary viewing window 704. In the example of FIG.11, the primary viewing window 702 contains content, and the secondaryviewing window 704 contains a blank image denoting a transition betweencontent and a commercial. Such a situation is referred to as ablank-in-picture (BIP) situation. FIG. 12 illustrates the example screen700, but at a time wherein the secondary window 704 contains content andthe primary window 702 contains a blank image denoting a transitionbetween the content and a commercial. Such a situation is referred to asa picture-in-blank (PIB) situation.

For the purpose of detecting blank images in primary and secondarywindows 702, 704, the blank image detector of FIG. 2 may be implementedby the example blank image detector 800 shown in FIG. 13. In theillustrated example, the blank image detector 800 includes a blank imagecandidate identifier 801, a blank slice detector 802, a slice mapper804, and a rectangle detector 806. As with the blank image candidateidentifier 301 discussed above, the blank image candidate identifier 801performs one or more relatively coarse tests to screen out images thatare too complex to be blank images. For example, the blank imagedetector 301 may screen out images who have too many bits/bytes to be ablank image and/or may screen out images who have too complex of a byteallocation distribution to be a blank image. However, because in the PIPcontext, the secondary window may be blank when the primary window isnot blank and vice versa, the test performed by the blank imagecandidate identifier 801 must be refined relative to the test performedby the blank image candidate identifier 301 discussed above. In theillustrated example, this refinement is achieved by structuring theblank image candidate identifier 801 to examine I-frames for a groupcontaining at least a predetermined number of slices that are locatednear each other within a frame and that satisfy a low byte allocationcriterion, and to examine P and B frames for more than a predeterminednumber of intracoded macro blocks located in a rectangular area. Onlyframes that meet these criteria are identified as blank framecandidates. Preferably, only blank frame candidates are passed to theblank slice detector 802 for further examination.

To this end, the blank frame candidate identifier 801 may be structuredsimilar to the blank frame candidate identifier 301 shown in FIG. 6. Anexample blank frame candidate identifier 801 is shown in FIG. 13A.Because some of the structures in FIG. 13A are identical to structuresin FIG. 6, corresponding structures in FIGS. 6 and 13A have been givenidentical reference numbers. The following description will not repeatthe description of those structures discussed in connection with FIG. 6.Instead, the description of FIG.13A will focus on the differencesbetween FIG. 13A and FIG. 6.

As in the example of FIG. 6, in the example of FIG. 13A the blank framecandidate identifier 801 performs a two part test to identify blankframe candidates. The first test is performed by the frame bytecalculator 505. As explained above, the frame byte calculator 505screens out frames as not blank that contain more than a predeterminednumber of bits or bytes. In the illustrated example, only frames havingless than the predetermined number of bits/bytes are analyzed under thesecond test.

Turning to the second test to determine if a frame is a blank candidate,in the example of FIG. 13A, the blank frame candidate identifier 801 isstructured to process I-frames differently than P and B frames. Thus,the blank frame candidate identifier 801 is provided with a frame-typeidentifier 808. The frame-type identifier 808 identifies a frame as anI-frame, a P-frame or a B-frame. If the frame-type identifier 808identifies a frame as an I-frame, it activates the area byte calculator506. The area byte calculator 506 operates as explained above tocalculate the number of bytes in each area of the frame and to store thecomputed byte counts in the area buffer 508. The area count comparator514 then compares each of the area byte counts in the area buffer 508 toa blank area candidate threshold (which replaces the blank framecandidate threshold 516 of FIG. 6). The area count comparator 514determines that a BIP or PIB situation may be presented by an I-frame ifa group of at least a predetermined number of areas that meet the blankarea candidate threshold and are located near each other within a frameis identified.

On the other hand, if the frame-type identifier 808 identifies the frametype tested as not an I-frame (i.e., a P-frame or a B-frame), itactivates the intracoded macro block calculator 810. The intracodedmacro block calculator 810 counts the number of intracoded macro blocksin the frame. The area count comparator 514 determines that a BIP or PIBsituation may be presented by a P or B frame if the frame contains apredetermined number of intracoded macro blocks located in generally thesame area.

Returning to FIG. 13, as explained in detail below, the blank slicedetector 802 of FIG. 13 processes I-frames, P-frames and B-frames in thesame manner. The blank slice detector 802 receives a blank framecandidate from its corresponding blank frame candidate identifier 801and analyzes the slices contained within the blank frame candidate frameto determine if they are blank.

The slice mapper 804 maps the blank slices identified by the blank slicedetector 802 to an x-y coordinate system corresponding, for example, tothe physical location of the slice in the frame. A portion of an examplemap of a frame created by the slice mapper 804 is shown in FIG. 15wherein an “X” indicates a non-blank slice or slice portion, and a “B”indicates a blank slice or slice portion. After the blank slice detector802 has analyzed every slice that contains intracoded macro blocks in aframe, and the slice mapper 804 has mapped each blank slice identifiedin the frame to the x-y coordinate system, the rectangle detector 806analyses the x-y coordinate system to determine if a substantiallyrectangular area is defined by the blank slices (i.e., the secondarywindow is blank such that a BIP situation is presented) or if the blankslices surround a substantially rectangular area (i.e., the primaryviewing window is blank such that a PIB situation is presented). Ifeither situation occurs (e.g., a blank primary window or a blanksecondary window), the blank image detector 800 outputs a blank imagesignal, as explained above. The blank image signal preferably indicatesif the frame is a BIP or a PIB, and the location of the blank or activewindow.

An example blank slice detector 802 is shown in greater detail in FIG.14. The example blank slice detector 802 of FIG. 14 includes a parser820 and a buffer 822. The parser 820 and the buffer 822 may be identicalto the parser 302 and the buffer 304 discussed above. Therefore, theparser 820 and the buffer 822 are not discussed in further detail here.Instead, the interested reader is referred to the above description ofthe parser 302 and the buffer 304 for a full discussion of thosestructures.

In order to determine if a slice is a blank slice, the example blankslice detector 802 of FIG. 14 is further provided with a DC valuecomparator 830, a counter 832, and a comparator 834. The DC valuecomparator 830 functions similar to the DC value comparator 306 in thatit compares the DC values of sequential pairs of luminance blocks230-236 in the low byte allocation slices to determine if there is adifference in average brightness between sequential luminance blocks. Ifno change is detected (e.g., the compared DC values are identical), theDC value comparator 830 outputs a no change signal (e.g., a logic highsignal). Because noise can cause some unintended brightness changes, theDC value comparator 830 may be structured to output the no change signalwhenever the difference between the compared DC values is zero or withina predetermined range of zero.

The output of the DC value comparator 830 is communicated to the counter832. The counter 832 increments in response to every no change signalreceived from the DC value comparator 830. The counter 832 is reset tozero whenever examination of a new slice begins.

When all of the DC values in a slice have been examined, the comparator834 compares the value stored in the counter 832 to a predeterminedthreshold value 836. If the counter 832 counts more than the thresholdvalue 836 of no change signals from the DC value comparator 830, thecomparator 834 outputs a blank slice signal indicating that the examinedslice is a blank slice. This blank slice signal is processed by theslice mapper 804 as explained above. In particular, the slice mapper 804maps the corresponding slice to a corresponding physical location in anxy-coordinate system corresponding to a display screen for lateranalysis by the rectangle detector 806 as shown in the example of FIG.15.

The predetermined threshold value 836 used when examining I-frames maybe set to any desired value. For example, it may be set to correspond toa number equivalent to any desired percentage of the total number ofluminance blocks contained in a slice (e.g., 51%, 90%, etc.).

Rather than employing the DC value comparator 830 and the counter 832,the blank slice detector 802 may include a histogram generator 831 asshown in FIG. 14A. The histogram generator 831 may map the DC valuesoutput by the parser 820 to a histogram reflecting the DC valuedistribution of a slice. The histogram may then be examined by thecomparator 834 to determine if a predetermined number of DC valuesrepresented in the histogram the same (e.g., reflecting no brightnessvariance or small brightness variance due to noise). If the histogrammeets the threshold criteria for a blank slice, the blank slice detector802 identifies the slice as a blank slice.

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the blank image detector 800 of FIGS. 13, 13A, 14 and 14Ais shown in FIGS. 16A-16F. In this example, the machine readableinstructions comprise a program for execution by a processor such as theprocessor 2004 shown in the example computer 1000 discussed below inconnection with FIG. 18. The program may be embodied in software storedon a tangible medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, adigital versatile disk (DVD), or a memory associated with the processor2004, but persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciatethat the entire program and/or parts thereof could alternatively beexecuted by a device other than the processor 2004 and/or embodied infirmware or dedicated hardware in a well known manner. For example, anyor all of the blank slice detector 802, the slice mapper 804, therectangle detector 806, the intracoded macro block calculator 810, theparser 820, the frame-type detectors 808, the frame byte calculator 505,the DC value comparator 830, the counter 832, the comparator 834 and/orthe thresholds 836 could be implemented by software, hardware, and/orfirmware. Further, although the example program is described withreference to the flowchart illustrated in FIGS. 16A-16F, persons ofordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that many othermethods of implementing the example blank image detector 800 mayalternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blocksmay be changed, and/or some of the blocks described may be changed,eliminated, or combined.

The program of FIGS. 16A-16D begins when a new frame is received fromthe corresponding tuner 114A-114N. The area byte calculator 506, thearea buffer 508, and the loop counters (I and K) are reset when a newframe is received (block 846). The frame byte calculator 505 thendetermines if the frame has a sufficiently low byte count to be blank(block 847). If not, control returns to block 846 where the next frameis received for processing. If, on the other hand, the frame bytecalculator 505 determines that the frame has less than a thresholdamount of bytes (block 847), the frame-type detector 808 then determinesif the frame to be examined is an I-frame (block 848). If the frame isan I-frame (block 850), control advances to block 852. Otherwise,control advances to block 932 (FIG. 16D).

Assuming for purposes of discussion that the frame is an I-frame (block850, FIG. 16A), the parser 502 begins constructing a slice table 520such as that shown in FIG. 7 and the area byte calculator 506 beginscalculating the area byte counts. In the illustrated example, the parser502 constructs the slice table 520 by examining the frame to find thestart address for the first slice (i.e., slice I) in the frame (block852). It then finds the start address of the next slice (i.e., slice K)in the frame (block 852). In the MPEG II context, if the verticalposition of the next slice K is the same as the vertical position forthe slice I (block 856), then slice I and slice K are at least partiallylocated in the same row. Accordingly, their byte counts are attributedto the same row I. To this end, the counter K is incremented by one(block 858) and control returns to block 854.

Control continues to loop through blocks 854-858 until a slice K havinga row address different than the row address of slice I is found (block856). When such a slice K is found, the area byte calculator 506computes the number of bytes in the row I associated with slice I bysubtracting the start address of slice K from the start address of sliceI (block 860). The byte count is recorded in the row buffer 508.

The blank frame candidate identifier 801 then determines if the lastbyte count has been calculated (block 862). If not, the counter I is setequal to the value in the counter K (block 864), and control returns toblock 852. Control continues to loop through blocks 852-864 until thearea byte calculator 506 has completed the row byte calculations for theentire frame. Control then advance to block 866.

At block 866, the area count comparator 514 begins analyzing the rowbyte counts in the area buffer 508 to determine if the frame is a blankframe candidate. In the illustrated example, the area count comparator514 performs this task by comparing each of the row byte counts in thearea buffer 508 to a blank area candidate threshold. The area countcomparator 514 determines that a BIP or PIB situation is presented if agroup containing at least a predetermined number of slices that meet theblank area candidate threshold and are located near each other within aframe is identified. In such an instance, the frame is a blank framecandidate and control advances to block 900 of FIG. 16B. Otherwise, ifno such group is detected, the frame is not a blank frame candidate andcontrol returns to block 846 where analysis of the next frame begins.

As shown in FIG. 16B, to begin analyzing the candidate frame, the parser820 parses the frame, and the counter 832 is reset (block 900). The DCvalue comparator 830 then retrieves the DC values from the first andsecond luminance blocks of the first low byte count slice of the blankframe candidate (blocks 906 & 908). The DC value comparator 830 comparesthe retrieved DC values to one another by, for example, comparing theabsolute value of the difference between the retrieved DC values to apredetermined threshold (block 910). If the threshold is exceeded (block910), control advances to block 914. If the threshold is not exceeded(block 910), the counter 832 increments (block 912) before controladvances to block 914.

At block 914, the parser 820 determines if the last block in the slicehas been analyzed. If not, the second DC value is written into the firstDC value variable (block 916). Control then returns to block 908 wherethe DC value of the next luminance block is retrieved to initiate thenext DC value comparison.

Once all of the sequential DC values in a slice have been compared(block 914), control advances to block 918 (FIG. 16C). At block 918, thecomparator 834 compares the value stored in the counter 832 to apredetermined threshold. If the threshold is exceeded by the countervalue (block 918), the slice mapper 804 maps a blank slice to thephysical location of the slice in an xy-coordinate system representativeof the blank frame candidate being analyzed (block 920)(see FIG. 15).Control then advances to block 922. If the threshold is not exceeded(block 918), the slice mapper 804 maps a non-blank slice to thexy-coordinate system representing the frame (block 921). (All non-lowbyte allocation slices may also be mapped as non-blank slices in thegraph.) Control then advances to block 922.

At block 922, it is determined if the last low byte allocation slice inthe current frame has been analyzed. If not, the counter is reset (block924). Control then returns to block 916 of FIG. 16B where analysis ofthe next low byte allocation slice of the frame begins as explainedabove. Control continues to loop through blocks 906-924 until every lowbyte allocation slice of a frame has been analyzed and mapped to thexy-coordinate system as a blank slice or a non-blank slice (block 922).

When all of the low byte allocation slices of a frame have beencategorized and mapped as explained above (block 922), the rectangledetector 806 analyzes the slice map created by the slice mapper 804 todetermine if the blank slices (if any) in the frame form a substantiallyrectangular area (block 926). Persons of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the rectangle detector 806 may detect blank rectangularregions in the slice map in a plurality of different manners. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 17, the rectangle detector 806 may analyze thexy coordinates associated with the blank slices for patterns indicativeof a rectangular area. For example, the rectangle detector 806 mayidentify an area of the slice map as containing a blank rectangle if thesequences of x coordinates 1000 (e.g., 5, 6, 7, 8) of an area containingblank slices and no non-blank slices are consistent with one another(e.g., all four horizontal sequences in FIG. 17 are 5, 6, 7, 8), and thesequences of y coordinates 1002 (e.g., 10, 11, 12) of that same area arealso consistent with one another (e.g., all three vertical sequences inFIG. 17 are 10, 11, 12). Of course, a region of blank slices need notform a perfect rectangle to be identified as a rectangular region.Instead, predefined tolerances may be permitted. For example, apredefined number of coordinates in each sequence may be inconsistentwith the other sequences and still be considered a match. For example,the sequence “5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10” may be considered a match to thesequence “5, 6, 7, 8, 10”. In this manner, small errors, roundedcorners, etc. may be ignored.

Also, to avoid falsely identifying small blank areas of a primary windowas reflecting a blank PIP window, the rectangle detector 806 may requirethe blank rectangular area to cover at least a predetermined area beforeit is identified as a blank PIP window. For example the rectangledetector 806 may compute the area of the blank area and compare thecomputed area to a predetermined threshold. Only if the threshold isexceeded is the blank area declared a blank PIP window.

If the rectangle detector 806 identifies a blank rectangle (block 926),control advances to block 930 where a blank image signal is generated.As explained above, if a pair of blank images that are separated by lessthan a predetermined length of time corresponding to the maximumexpected length of a commercial break (e.g., 5 minutes) are detected,the monitoring station 106 identifies the portion of the broadcastsignal occurring between the blank images as containing a commercialand, thus, stores the frames or proxies for the frames occurring betweenthe blank images for later use in identifying the commercials.

If the rectangle detector 806 does not identify a blank rectangle (block926), control advances to block 928. At block 928, the rectangledetector 806 analyzes the slice map created by the slice mapper todetermine if the blank slices (if any) in the frame form an area ofblank slices (i.e., a blank primary window) bounding a substantiallyrectangular area of non-blank slices (e.g., a non-blank secondarywindow) (block 928). Persons of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the rectangle detector 806 may detect a blank regionwhich bounds a non-blank rectangular area in the slice map in aplurality of different manners. For example, as shown in FIG. 17, therectangle detector 806 may analyze the xy coordinates associated withnon-blank slices bounded by blank slices for patterns indicative of arectangular area. For example, the rectangle detector 806 may identifyan area of the slice map as containing a non-blank rectangle bounded byblank slices if the sequences of X coordinates 1000 (e.g., 5, 6, 7, 8)of an area containing non-blank slices bounded by blank slices areconsistent with one another (e.g., all four horizontal sequences in FIG.17 are 5, 6, 7, 8), the sequences of Y coordinates 1002 (e.g., 10, 11,12) of that same area are also consistent with one another (e.g., allthree vertical sequences in FIG. 17 are 10, 11, 12), and no, orsubstantially no, slices outside the rectangular area are non-blankslices. Again, the non-blank rectangular region bounded by the blankslices need not be a perfectly rectangular region for the region ofblank slices to be identified as a blank primary window. Also, a minimumarea test may be employed as explained above to avoid falselyidentifying a non-blank area surrounded by a blank area as a PIP windowlocated in a blank primary window.

If the rectangle detector 806 identifies a blank primary window (block928), control advances to block 930 where a blank image signal isgenerated as explained above. If the rectangle detector 806 does notidentify a blank primary window (block 928), or after the blank imagesignal is generated (block 930), control returns to block 850 (FIG. 16A)where analysis of the next frame begins.

Returning to block 850 of FIG. 16A, if the frame-type detector 808determines that the blank frame candidate to be analyzed is a P-frame ora B-frame (block 850), control advances to block 932 of FIG. 16D. Atblock 932, the intracoded macro block calculator counts the number ofintracoded macro blocks contained in the frame. Since blank areas inP-frames and B-frames are best represented by intracoded macro blocks,non-blank P-frames and non-blank B-frames will not contain a largenumber of intracoded macro blocks. Therefore, the presence of more thana predetermined number (e.g., more than 25% of the macro blocks) ofintracoded macro blocks indicates that the frame may contain a blankarea. Therefore, if more than the predetermined number of intracodedmacro blocks are counted in the frame (block 934), the frame may be aPIB or BIP frame and control advances to block 936. Otherwise, the frameis not a PIB or BIP frame, and control returns to block 846 of FIG. 16A.

Assuming for purposes of discussion that the P-Frame or B-frame meetsthe quantity test for a BIP or PIB frame (block 934), the area countcomparator 514 determines if the intracoded macro blocks fare groupedtogether so that they may represent a PIB or BIP frame (block 936). Ifnot, the frame is not a PIB or BIP frame, and control returns to block846 of FIG. 16A. On the other hand, if the intracoded macro blocks aregrouped together (block 936), the frame may be a BIP or PIB frame andcontrol advances to block 900 of FIG. 16B.

Control then proceeds through blocks 900-930 as explained above untilthe P-frame or B-frame is identified as a PIB, a BIP or a non-blankimage.

The flowcharts of FIGS. 16B-16D are directed toward the exampleillustrated in FIG. 14. However, as noted above and illustrated in FIG.14A, the blank slice detector 802 may alternatively be structured toinclude a histogram generator 831 instead of the DC value comparator 830and the counter 832. Modified versions of FIGS. 16B and 16C reflectingthe changes required to implement the blank slice detector of FIG. 14Aare shown in FIGS. 16E and 16F. In FIGS. 16E and 16F as respectivelycompared to FIGS. 16B and 16C, like reference numerals reflect likeblocks. Thus, descriptions of those identical blocks are omitted in theinterest of brevity. Instead, the following identifies the differencesbetween FIG. 16B. and FIG. 16E and between FIG. 16C and FIG. 16F.

As shown in FIG. 16E, blocks 906 and 916 are eliminated, block 900 ismodified to eliminate resetting of the counter, and blocks 910-912 arereplaced with a block 911 in which the histogram is updated by thehistogram generator 831 to reflect the retrieved DC value. As shown inFIG. 16F, block 924 is eliminated and block 918 is replaced with block919 which sums a window of peak(s) of the histogram around the valuerepresenting a zero DC value, and compares the sum to the threshold asexplained above in connection with block 415 of FIG. 10C. All otherblocks may remain the same.

A block diagram of an example apparatus that may implement any or all ofthe blank image detectors 116A-116N, 300, 500 and 800 is illustrated inFIG. 18. The apparatus may be a personal computer (PC), an applicationspecific device, and/or any other computing device. In the illustratedexample, the apparatus includes a processor 2004 powered by a powersupply 2003. The processor 2004 may be electrically coupled by a systeminterconnect 2006, to a main memory 2008, and to one or more interfacecircuits 2010. The system interconnect 2006 may be, for example, anaddress/data bus. Of course, a person of ordinary skill in the art willreadily appreciate that interconnects other than busses may be used toconnect the processor unit 2004 to the main memory 2008. For example,one or more dedicated lines and/or a crossbar may be used to connect theprocessor 2004 to the main memory 2008.

The processor 2004 may be implemented, for example, by a microprocessorfrom the Intel Pentium® family of microprocessors, the Intel Itanium®family of microprocessors, the Intel Centrino® family of processorsand/or the Intel XScale® family of processors. The processor 2004 mayinclude any type of well known cache memory, such as static randomaccess memory (SRAM). The main memory 2008 may include dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM), but may also include non-volatile memory. The mainmemory 2008 may store one or more programs which may be executed by theprocessor 2004 in a well known manner.

The interface circuit(s) 2010 may be implemented using any type of wellknown interface standard, such as an analog cable interface, a digitalcable interface, a satellite signal interface, an Ethernet interface,and/or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. One or more input devices2012 may be connected to the interface circuits 2010 for entering dataand commands into the processor 2004. For example, an input device 2012may be a keyboard, a mouse, a touch screen, a track pad, a track ball,an isopoint, and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more displays, printers, speakers, and/or other output devices2014 may also be connected to the processor 2002 via one or more of theinterface circuits 2010. The display 2014 may be a cathode ray tube(CRTs), a liquid crystal display (LCDs), or any other type of display.The display 2014 may generate visual indications of data generatedduring operation of the processor 2002. The visual display may includeprompts for human operator input, calculated values, detected data, etc.

The apparatus may also include one or more storage devices 2016. Forexample, the apparatus may include one or more hard drives, a compactdisk (CD) drive, a digital versatile disk drive (DVD), and/or othercomputer media input/output (I/O) devices.

The apparatus may also exchange data with other devices such as the dataprocessing center 108 via a connection to a network 2018. The networkconnection may be any type of network connection, such as an Ethernetconnection, digital subscriber line (DSL), telephone line, coaxialcable, etc. The network 2018 may be any type of network, such as theInternet, a telephone network, a cable network, and/or a wirelessnetwork.

From the foregoing, persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciatethat methods and apparatus have been disclosed to detect acommercial/advertisement in a digital video broadcast signal withoutuncompressing the signal. The disclosed methods and apparatusadvantageously detect blank frames in a digital broadcast stream withoutdecompressing the stream. The disclosed methods and apparatus may beemployed in multiple contexts and manners. For example, the disclosedmethods and apparatus may be adapted to detect blank frames in a primaryscreen and/or a secondary screen in a picture-in-picture environment.

While the foregoing disclosure was made with respect to example systemsand methods for monitoring the broadcast of video signals, it should beunderstood that the teachings of this disclosure may alternatively oradditionally be applied to monitoring systems adapted to monitor anyother type of video display system. Accordingly, while the foregoingdescribed example systems and processes, persons of ordinary skill inthe art will readily appreciate that the disclosed examples are not theonly way to implement such systems.

Additionally, while the examples disclosed herein refer to “bits,”“bytes,” bit allocations,” “byte counts,” etc., persons of ordinaryskill in the art will appreciate that bits can be grouped in many ways,for example, into bytes. Therefore, performing any of the functionsdescribed herein using bits, bytes, or any other grouping of bits areequivalent, and the use of the words “bit” and “byte” in this disclosureand the appended claims are meant to be interchangeable with one anotherand with any other unit of digital data (e.g., kilobits, kilobytes,etc.)

Furthermore, although certain methods, apparatus, and articles ofmanufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of thispatent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers allapparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture fairly falling withinthe scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrineof equivalents.

1. (canceled)
 2. A computer readable storage disk or storage devicecomprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to atleast: store a compressed digital image in a memory device, thecompressed digital image being a frame of a compressed media signal;analyze a total number of bits in the compressed digital image stored inthe memory device to determine if the compressed digital image has adata size less than a first threshold; when the data size is less thanthe first threshold, determine a number of bits in multiplepredetermined areas of the compressed digital image and store the numberof bits associated with each of the multiple predetermined areas in thememory device; analyze the number of bits in multiple predeterminedareas of the compressed digital image stored in the memory device todetermine if a deviation between the number of bits within the multiplepredetermined areas is less than a second threshold; when the deviationbetween the number of bits within the multiple predetermined areas isless than the second threshold, identify, via the logic circuit, thecompressed digital image as a blank image candidate; when the compresseddigital image is not identified as a blank image candidate, discard thecompressed digital image from the memory device; when the compresseddigital image is identified as a blank image candidate, determine anumber of DC values of the blank image candidate that meet a criterionand store the DC values in the memory device; compare the determinednumber of DC values stored in the memory device meeting the criterion toa third threshold; and identify the compressed digital image as theblank image if the determined number of DC values exceeds the thirdthreshold.
 3. The computer readable storage disk or storage device ofclaim 2, wherein the DC values are included within a same slice of aframe.
 4. The computer readable storage disk or storage device of claim2, wherein, when the compressed digital image is identified as a blankimage within a predetermined period of time after another blank image isidentified, the instructions, when executed, further cause the processorto output a signal indicating that a portion of the media signal betweenthe blank images is an advertisement.
 5. The computer readable storagedisk or storage device of claim 2, wherein determining the number of DCvalues meeting the criterion includes, for each DC value except for afirst DC value in the plurality, determining if a difference between theDC value and a previous DC value is substantially zero.
 6. The computerreadable storage disk or storage device of claim 2, wherein determiningthe number of DC values meeting the criterion is performed withoutdecompressing the compressed digital image.
 7. The computer readablestorage disk or storage device of claim 2, wherein determining thenumber of DC values meeting the criterion includes determining a numberof relative DC values that are substantially equal to zero.
 8. Thecomputer readable storage disk or storage device of claim 2, whereindetermining the number of DC values meeting the criterion includesdetermining a number of relative DC values that are less than a DC valuethreshold.
 9. An apparatus to detect a blank image within a compressedmedia signal, the apparatus comprising: a buffer to store a compresseddigital image, the compressed digital image being a frame of thecompressed media signal; a blank frame candidate identifier to: analyzea total number of bits in the compressed digital image stored in thebuffer to determine if the compressed digital image has a data size lessthan a first threshold; when the data size is less than the firstthreshold, determine a number of bits in multiple predetermined areas ofthe compressed digital image and store the number of bits associatedwith each of the multiple predetermined areas in the buffer; analyze thenumber of bits in multiple predetermined areas of the compressed digitalimage stored in the buffer to determine if a deviation between thenumber of bits within the multiple predetermined areas is less than asecond threshold; when the deviation between the number of bits withinthe multiple predetermined areas is less than the second threshold,identify the compressed digital image as a blank image candidate; andwhen the compressed digital image is not identified as a blank imagecandidate, discard the compressed digital image from the buffer; and ablank frame tester to: when the compressed digital image is identifiedas a blank image candidate, determine a number of DC values of the blankimage candidate that meet a criterion and store the DC values in thebuffer; compare the determined number of DC values stored in the buffermeeting the criterion to a third threshold; and identify the compresseddigital image as the blank image if the determined number of DC valuesexceeds the third threshold.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein theDC values are included within a same slice of a frame.
 11. The apparatusof claim 9, wherein, when the compressed digital image is identified asa blank image within a predetermined period of time after another blankimage is identified, the blank frame tester is further to output asignal indicating that a portion of the media signal between the blankimages is an advertisement.
 12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein theblank frame tester determines the number of DC values meeting thecriterion by, for each DC value except for a first DC value in aplurality of DC values, determining if a difference between the DC valueand a previous DC value is substantially zero.
 13. The apparatus ofclaim 9, wherein the blank frame tester determines the number of DCvalues meeting the criterion without decompressing the compresseddigital image.
 14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the blank frametester determines the number of DC values meeting the criterion bydetermining a number of relative DC values that are substantially equalto zero.
 15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the blank frame testerdetermines the number of DC values meeting the criterion by determininga number of relative DC values that are less than a DC value threshold.16. A method to detect a blank image within a compressed media signal,the method comprising: storing a compressed digital image in a memorydevice, the compressed digital image being a frame of the compressedmedia signal; analyzing, via a logic circuit, a total number of bits inthe compressed digital image stored in the memory device to determine ifthe compressed digital image has a data size less than a firstthreshold; when the data size is less than the first threshold,determining, via the logic circuit, a number of bits in multiplepredetermined areas of the compressed digital image and storing thenumber of bits associated with each of the multiple predetermined areasin the memory device; analyzing, via the logic circuit, the number ofbits in multiple predetermined areas of the compressed digital imagestored in the memory device to determine if a deviation between thenumber of bits within the multiple predetermined areas is less than asecond threshold; when the deviation between the number of bits withinthe multiple predetermined areas is less than the second threshold,identifying, via the logic circuit, the compressed digital image as ablank image candidate; when the compressed digital image is notidentified as a blank image candidate, discarding, via the logiccircuit, the compressed digital image from the memory device; when thecompressed digital image is identified as a blank image candidate,determining, via the logic circuit, a number of DC values of the blankimage candidate that meet a criterion and storing the DC values in thememory device; comparing, via the logic circuit, the determined numberof DC values stored in the memory device meeting the criterion to athird threshold; and identifying, via the logic circuit, the compresseddigital image as the blank image if the determined number of DC valuesexceeds the third threshold.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the DCvalues are included within a same slice of a frame.
 18. The method ofclaim 16, further including, when the compressed digital image isidentified as a blank image within a predetermined period of time afteranother blank image is identified, outputting a signal indicating that aportion of the media signal between the blank images is anadvertisement.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein determining thenumber of DC values meeting the criterion includes, for each DC valueexcept for a first DC value in the plurality, determining if adifference between the DC value and a previous DC value is substantiallyzero.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the number of DCvalues meeting the criterion is performed without decompressing thecompressed digital image.
 21. The method of claim 16, whereindetermining the number of DC values meeting the criterion includesdetermining a number of relative DC values that are substantially equalto zero.